The Path Less Traveled By
by BrownieFox
Summary: In which Joe wakes up back at summer camp with memories of the journey to come and no guide to what he's supposed to do with them.
1. Chapter 1

Joe woke up under a thick and warm blanket with a vaguely familiar woman standing over him. His head hurt and he blinked, searching for his last memory. He had been in Odaiba, Myotismon's digimon were causing havoc everywhere, attacking everything, and then… nothing.

"Oh good, you're awake." The lady smiled down at him. "You looked like you took quite a slip in the snow out there."

Snow? It was the middle of summer, blazing heat everyday that Joe had been home. Maybe one of the digimon had done something… Joe reached up and sure enough there was a bandage around his head. At least it explained why his head hurt.

"Uh, excuse me, miss, but did I have a white stuffed animal with me?" Her brow furrowed and she shook her head.

"No, but you did have the emergency bag with you." She reached down and lifted up a very familiar tan bag with a red cross in the center. "The chart says it's Mimi's turn to carry it though."

"What?!" Joe janked the bag out of her hands, looking through it. Everything they had started their journey with was still in there; the food, the matches, the emergency blanket. "What day is it?"

"August first. Did Mimi try and convince you that it was yesterday so she wouldn't have to carry it?" The woman - camp counselor, now Joe remembered where he's seen her - gave him a pitying look.

"Uh, y-ye, n… no. I must've just forgotten." Joe let the lie fall from his lips and prayed that the counselor didn't notice how much his voice was shaking. Joe rubbed his head, gently where the most pain was, and looked around the room he was in. He recognized the cabin that the camp counselors stayed in and that was now swarming with the other campers. Near the door, Joe could see Izzy frowning at his laptop, but the other five digidestines - could he call them that if he wasn't sure it was true? - were nowhere to be seen.

With the bag in his arms still, Joe got off the bed.

"Maybe you should rest a bit more." The camp counsellor advised. Joe didn't respond right away, deep in thought.

It was all so insane, thinking back on it, on the impossible dreams or memories or whatever that were at the forefront of his mind. Digimon and crests, a digital world and a big destiny and another half in the form of a weird and small sealion monster. But if it was all a dream… why was there still snow in the middle of summer?

"... do you think we should put more supplies in the emergency bag? What with all the snow?" Joe asked.

"That's, actually a great idea Joe. Let's see what we have…" Joe followed the woman around the small cabin as she picked out another emergency blanket, a bit more food, and some extra matches. The bag hadn't been too heavy to begin with, and luckily the extra items didn't weigh it down too much. If it was all a dream, that was okay (no it wasn't), but if it was like some kind of weird prophecy he had witnessed, he didn't want to start taking any chances.

He watched as Izzy got up and went out into the snow.

"I'm going to give this to Mimi now." He told the woman and didn't wait for an answer, following the kid genius out the door.

Mimi was indeed out there, as were the rest of the kids he so clearly knew, though they barely gave him a glance. He didn't take offense from that though, seeing as they were all looking at the Aurora Borealis shining like ribbons in afternoon sky. He knew what was coming next, some nights in the Digital World he'd dream of this moment over and that maybe he missed his and was left behind, or he got to the Digital World and ended up far away from the others, already on Server Island, and died alone.

The digivices fell, hitting the ground at each other their feet, and Joe squeezed his eyes shut against their bright light. They floated up, out of the snow and into the hands of their respective Chosen Child. Joe caught his, unsure what to think. Was this another dream? But the cold snow slowly melting into his shoes seemed too real, the odd warmth of the digivice warming his chilled hands.

And then The Wave.

It surged up, above the tree line, seemingly manifesting out of thin air, and Joe only had enough time to catch a deep breath before it washed him and the other six before retreating like the tide and pulling them with it to the Digital World. Joe tried to stay awake, but like the first time - like his dream - darkness overtook him.

The first time he had woken up that day, it was somewhat gradual. This time, he popped right up. Legs scrambling to get under him as an initial reaction. Joe's struggling stopped when he realized he knew where he was.

Of course.

The next part.

Being in the Digital World.

Joe stood up, brushing dirt off of his legs and arms. He didn't really think this was a dream, one doesn't usually fall asleep and wake up within one. Was he really in the past? Why?

Despite knowing so much more than the Joe who has gone through this before, he felt more confused than before.

"You're here."

The voice, despite how familiar it was, made Joe jump as he spun to look at the tree behind him. The brown digimon rubbed his eyes and then continued to stare at Joe.

"Uh-"

Was all Joe could manage to say. He hadn't even started to think about this part. Bukamon. His partner, his best friend. Except it wasn't his Bukamon, it was the one who had never evolved past In-Training form, who would be seeing a human for the first time.

"You really did come today." Bukamon hopped down to the forest floor, and when he looked at Joe again his eyes were watering. "H-hey there, I-I'm Buka-... B… I CAN'T DO THIS!"

Bukamon flew across the distance between them and latched onto Joe's leg.

"Bukamon?"

"I CAN'T DO THIS AGAIN JOE I JUST CAN'T I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ALONE AND WITH NO ONE ELSE REMEMBERING AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!" Bukamon cried, and Joe slowly knelt down, feeling tears prick in his own eyes. He hadn't realized just exactly how afraid he was to be alone until this very moment.

"Bukamon, I'm here." Joe wrapped his arms around the small sea-horse like digimon

"JOE!" Bukamon cuddled in closer. "Joe, what's going on?"

"I don't know, Bukamon," Joe sighed, looking past Bukamon's orange plume and out into the digital forest, "But first, we need to find the others."


	2. Chapter 2

Bukamon sat himself on Joe's shoulder as the two of them picked a direction and walked. They had to run into somebody eventually.

"The last thing I remember is being in your world." Bukamon said as he looked around, seeing if he could stop anybody.

"Same here. Do you think a digimon did this?" It certainly wasn't anything humans were capable of making happen. But Bukamon shook his head.

"No, I've never heard of this happening. If it was a digimon, they'd have to be really powerful, stronger than even Myotismon." The thought of something even more powerful than Myotismon sent a shiver down Joe's spine.

"Great, and we haven't even managed to defeat him yet." Joe sighed.

"Hey, look on the bright side. Maybe whatever did this is on our side." Bukamon patted Joe's cheek. Joe shook his head.

"With our luck? I doubt it." There was a beat of silence before a thought struck Joe. "Hey, why are you still Bukamon anyway? You're not hungry, are you?"

"No, not right now." Bukamon conceded. "But there's not really much reason to digivolve right now anyway."

"But don't you want to be Gomamon?" Joe took out his digivice. Bukamon seemed to consider that.

"I mean, yeah, but I'm not sure I can do that yet?" Joe gave him a confused look. Bukamon sighed. "I can't explain it as well as some of the others, but, I mean, no sane digimon would stay in their In-Training form if they can help it. But there's just a connection between us yet?" Bukamon made a frustrated sound. "You should ask Motimon when we see him, I think he gets it."

They continued on, Bukamon at some point settling himself on top of Joe's head, chin resting on Joe's forehead. It wasn't long until they came across most of the others. They all already had their digimon, the humans and digital creature regarding each other curiously. Joe thought back to the first time he saw Bukamon. The little guy had wandered up to him and Joe had screamed, running off in a random direction as the digimon merrily and easily kept pace behind him.

"Wow, even you Joe?" Tai commented, walking up to him.

"Yeah, it's uh, really weird." Joe couldn't find it in himself to even try and be scared or surprised. As much as a part of him hated it and found it weird, he'd gotten used to the digimon all around him all the time. He felt more at home in this ragtag group of humans and digimon than he'd ever felt in the digital world.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Bukamon!" Bukamon lept down to join the group of other digimon and smiled up at the others, no sign of the small break down he'd had just a little while ago. He looked around the group, head cocked to the side. "Has anybody seen Tanemon?"

"Maybe she's still looking for her Chosen Child." Motimon suggested.

"Chosen Child?" Izzy frowned at the name. He looked at the group. "Wait, where's Mimi?"

"Picking flowers?" Tai suggested just as a scream filled the otherwise quiet forest.

"Mimi!" Sora yelled and took off farther into the forest. Joe followed behind her, the rest of the digimon following along. Right, the Kuwagamon. Joe knew they'd - he'd - faced worse, but right now all of their digimon were in In-Training forms. Every step towards Mimi meant a step closer to the Kuwagamon, and Joe could feel tremors of fear starting to make themselves known.

"We've made it through this before, I'll be okay." The familiar voice of Bukamon reassured Joe, and he looked down to see the digimon was right beside him. Joe swallowed nervously and nodded. Right. This was nothing he hadn't done before.

Still, his legs locked up as they stood right at the treeline, Mimi and Tanemon running towards them with the Kuwagamon in hot pursuit. She made it to them as the bug digimon swooped over head, shaving off branches of the trees as he passed. Mimi collapsed to her knees, trembling, and Tanemon tried to soothe her.

"Are you okay Mimi?" She asked and her Digidestine gave a shaky nod.

"Yeah, I'm okay Tanemon."

"Don't you worry, I'm here to protect you." Tanemon promised, nestling close to Mimi, and Mimi gently pet the top of Tanemon's leaves.

"We can't stop now," Matt helped pull Mimi to her feet, "That thing's on its way back!"

Joe sighed did his best to not trip and keep pace with the group as they fled, ducking every now and then as Kuwagamon passed over the heads. But eventually the forest ran out of trees and they came to another spot that had plagued Joe's nightmares: The Cliff. Joe clenched his shaking fists. Dang it, this was his second time being backed into this corner! He should've found a way to avoid it!

"We'll need to find another way down." Tai said as he looked down the cliff.

"We don't have time!" Sora cried as the trees shook before revealing Kuwagamon's bright red carapace. Koromon, the crazy brave digimon he was, tried to fight him off with some bubbles but to no avail. When he went down though, the other digimon cried out and jumped up to try and at least disorient the Champion level digimon.

"BUKAMON!" Joe ran after his partner, not caring to see where the Kuwagamon had landed. He scooped the brown digimon into his arms, and Bukamon gave a chuckle.

"It didn't work last time either."

"Why did you do it?! What if he'd hit you worse?!" Joe cried, wanting to hug Bukamon tightly to his chest but not wanting to hurt him further and risk doing too much damage.

"We have to try still, right?"

The Kuwagamon reared back up, screeching, and Joe followed Bukamon to the edge of the cliff.

"This is what we were made for!" Koromon cried out, leaping out of Tai's arms. "We have to stand and fight!"

"But you can't take him, he's too strong!" Tai argued as slowly each and every Chosen Child lost their battle to keep a hold of their digimon. Joe looked down at Bukamon, who just looked right back up. If things went the same way as last time, it would be okay, but it was still terrifying to let the little guy try and take on such a big and fearsome opponent. He knelt down and let Bukamon out of his arms to join this others.

"You… YOU CAN DO IT BUKAMON!" Joe yelled, his voice joining the chorus as the others called out to their digimon.

He hadn't noticed it the first time, but through the roar of emotions and adrenaline and fear running through his system there was Something Else. And that Something Else shifted Something Big as the sky opened up and the digimon were enveloped in rainbow light. His digivice gave the tell-tale 'SCREEEEE' that signaled a digivolution.

"Whoa." Matt breathed, staring at Gabumon.

"They're… bigger." Tai said, jaw practically on the ground. Six of the digimon surged forward to take on Kuwagamon, but Gomamon hung back, going up to Joe.

"They've got this." He said in reply to Joe's questioning look, going past Joe and up to the ledge. "We need to get out of here though. Palmon! I need your help!" The plant digimon turned around as the other five continued to keep the Kuwagamon distracted.

"Yeah Gomamon?"

"I'm going to need you to lower everybody down to the water." Gomamon instructed before jumping down to the river below.

"But I can't swim!" TK grabbed onto his brother's leg.

"It's okay, we're not going to swim." Joe reassured the youngest digidestined. He peeked over the ledge to where Gomamon was already amassing a swarm of fish to carry them. Joe tried not to think about the distance. "Palmon, can you get us down to him?"

"No problem!" Palmon waved and her claws extended into vines, wrapping around the humans and pulling them over. A few who hadn't caught on to what was going on yelped in surprise, and Tai actually started to try and tear through the vine before realizing it was one of their digimon doing it.

"I figured we might as well skip the big fall this time." Gomamon gave Joe a big toothy grin and Joe scratched the digimon's head.

"Ooh, they're such pretty colors." Mimi cooed, staring at the multi-colored fish. Once all of the Digidestined were down safely the digimon hopped down next.

"Everybody buckled in?" Gomamon asked, and then didn't wait for an answer as he ordered, "Onward, Fish Buddies!"

The Kuwagamon tried to keep up, but it seemed too tired from being attacked by so many Rookies at once to keep up, eventually falling behind with a frustrated roar.


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the day was mostly a blur. The group eventually got off the fish and started walking, hoping to find something or someone eventually. Food was sorted out, Agumon digivolved into Greymon, and eventually they found a small island and a trolley car to rest for the night. Joe was oddly quiet for most of it, and Gomamon followed suit, figuring his partner probably had a reason for it. Just as they were settling, Gomamon started to bring up the Seadramon they'd encountered before, but Joe had grabbed his and covered his mouth.

Now, bellies full of fish and claiming they were foraging for extra food, Joe and Gomamon grouped together in the forest quite a distance from the others, more than far enough that not even Gabumon would be able to hear them. Joe found a rock to sit on and now he was nearly tearing his hair out.

"What are we going to do, Gomamon?!" Joe moaned, and Gomamon but his head against the Chosen Child's leg.

"Do things better this time, hopefully."

"But what if we mess things up? Maybe we take a wrong turn, and then Patamon never digivolves to Angemon, or Sora never finds her crest, or-"

"Calm down, Joe," Gomamon hopped up onto his lap, "If it's meant to be, I'm sure It'll happen."

"What if we just traded places with past Joe and Gomamon, and now they're stuck in Odaiba while Myotismon is taking over, and now we're messing up the past so bad everybody dies!" Gomamon tilted his head as Joe's breaths became faster. After a moment, the digimon gently knocked his head into Joe's stomach.

"No, I don't think that's what happened. You'd still have your crest then. And don't be silly Joe, you have me! And I'll make sure nothing happens to you." Joe went quiet, and eventually his breathing evened back out.

"... do you think you can still digivolve?" Gomamon blinked at the odd and sudden question. Huh. He hadn't thought that far.

"I don't know. Why?" Joe's head tilted so that he was looking upwards, but one of his hands was scratching the top of Gomamon's head.

"I… I'd feel a lot safer if I knew you could." Joe admitted. Gomamon pressed his head into Joe's scratches for a moment longer before hopping off his lap and hopping away until there was a good amount of space between them.

"Well, let's try then." Gomamon wiggled in place, trying to prepare himself for a digivolution. At first, digivolution was hard and he'd only been able to do it when Joe was in trouble. At some point though, it got easier. Gomamon looked into Joe's eyes, and the Digidestined stood up, digivice in hand, and nodded to his partner.

Gomamon took a deep breath in, and it happened like it always did. Energy flowed into him, and he pulled it with just as much strength, building it up inside of him until the small form of a Gomamon was no longer sufficient to contain it. His form fell away for a breath, the data pure and without a container, before some part of it took control. Shape returned to him, now bigger and stronger than before.

When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer looking up at Joe, but down. The kid gave a sigh of relief, walking forward and hugging one of his legs.

"Good to see you again, Ikkakumon."

Ikkakumon gave a rumbled laugh and lifted his leg with Joe still on it, placing his partner on his head.

"Well, we shouldn't go back empty handed, let's see how many fish I can catch as Ikkakumon."

oOo

Joe returned to camp with his arms filled with fish. Gomamon was back to being Gomamon, but the knowledge that their bond was still strong took some of the weight and fear off of Joe. Everybody was awake, and Joe wasn't too surprised to see Garurumon standing on the shore.

"Joe, you're okay!" Sora was the one who noticed him, and the attention turned away from the champion-level digimon and to Joe. Joe nodded towards them, hands preoccupied holding the fish.

"Heya guys! Looks like we really missed out on some fun!" Gomamon greeted, bounding forward to stare up at Garurumon. The giant wolf glowed for a moment, his form shrinking until Gabumon stood in his place.

"I'll say. I've never seen a Seadramon looking so upset." Gabumon replied. "But nothing I couldn't handle."

"Joe, where were you? We were starting to get worried." Matt's arms were folded and he was regarding Joe somewhat skeptically. Right. Matt barely knew him, at least right now.

"Uh, well, Gomamon and I thought, maybe we should catch more fish?" It came out a question, and Joe's eyes darted around the other six, praying none of them saw reason to get upset with him. There was no way they'd know that wasn't his original reason for sneaking away from the group, but if he recalled correctly - especially in these firest days - tensions ran high.

"Sweet!" Tai swept forward, grabbing some of the fish out of Joe's arms. "Let's get these cooked up!" Joe felt relief sweep through him, following Tai over the fire. Matt and Sora followed to help them set the fish up, TK and Patamon tagging along while Mimi left to finish her beauty sleep and Izzy continued to type away on his laptop.

Since it was his fish, Joe was tasked with staying up, keeping watch, and making sure they didn't burn. He sighed, feeling more tired than the he should have, and watched the fire. He knew the food would come in handy - he couldn't count the times they had nearly starved to death - but he wanted nothing more than to fall asleep.

"Are you and Gomamon okay?"

Joe jumped violently at the unexpected voice, and Gabumon grabbed Joe's shoulder to keep him from accidently landing himself in the fire.

"Oh, Gabumon, I didn't notice you there." Joe blinked sluggishly. Man, he must be even more tired than he thought he was. "Uh, sorry, could you repeat that?"

"You and Gomamon didn't have any trouble while you were out there, did you?" Gabumon looked worried, head tilted slightly to the side.

"N-no, we didn't. It was just a nice fishing trip. Gomamon did most of the work." Joe admitted. Gabumon still looked worried and glanced over at Joe's partner, who was sprawled out with one of his front feet-hands resting on Joe's ankle. Most of the digidestined were still cautious about their digimon and Joe wondered if they'd ever notice how quickly he and Gomamon had acclimated to each other. "Why?"

"When I was Garurumon, I can smell a lot better." Gabumon pointed to his nose for emphasis. "Both you and Gomamon smelt… weird. Like another digimon." Joe's eyes widened and he stopped breathing.

Right. Ikkakumon.

"D-did we?! I, well I have no idea why, hah, you sure it wasn't just the fish?" Joe grinned extremely fakely, praying Gabumon would believe him. The wolf digimon learned forward, sniffing very purposefully.

"Hmmm… maybe you just always smelled like that and I just never noticed." Gabumon conceded, shrugging, and looked out across the lake. Joe followed his gaze to Matt, asleep with TK by his side. "I should get back to my partner now. Try to be careful Joe." Gabumon waved splashed into the water, swimming away. Joe watching his retreating form and reached down, gently petting Gomamon. The digimon hummed in his sleep, scooting closer and laying ever more on Joe.

"I'm glad I've got you here buddy." Joe whispered. Even with the other digidestined here, he felt incredibly alone. The fish were almost done. He was sure the digimon were more than capable of waking up and defending them if something came along. Joe leaned back, looking up at the familiar other-worldly stars, and drifted off to sleep.

oOo

"THE FISH!" Joe jerked awake, glasses skewing across his face.

"Good morning princess." Gomamon teased, chewing on a stick of fish. The fire was out, the sun was up, and the others were already getting ready for the day of more searching. Joe didn't have the heart to tell them it was in vain, nor did he want to mess too much with the timeline. The fish were sitting in a nice pile next to where the first had been, and when Joe looked around a some of the others were eating it for breakfast.

"Wha- who took care of the fish?" Joe rubbed his eyes and fixed his glasses.

"I was awake." Agumon was holding two fish between his claws. "Tai was afraid you'd fall asleep and told me to watch the food."

"Huh. Thanks?" Joe shifted around until he could see Tai across the way, stretching out and saying something to Sora, and felt a small smile tug on his mouth. Tai, ever the watchful leader. "Well, we'd better pack them all up get moving right?"

Joe shoved the fish into his bag, bapping away Gomamon's paw as he tried to steal another. His memory of exactly when they found food and shelter and the order of events started to get jumbled up as the first adrenaline-filled days passed. He was still cautious about changing up events, but surely making the journey a bit more livable wouldn't mess things up too badly. Once packed up Joe followed Agumon back to the shore where the others just about ready to go. Mimi was attempting to wash her hair in the lake water while Matt gently woke up TK.

"Okay, we all ready to get this show on the road?" Tai asked, looking around the ragtag group, and when nobody disagreed started forward into the forest.

"Hey, Tentomon, can I ask you something?" Joe said after a while.

"Why of course Joe! What is it you want to know?" Tentomon flew over, probably happy to have some questions to answer that weren't about whether or not they were aliens.

"How does digivolution… work?" Tentomon looked ecstatic at the question. It wasn't something Joe had ever worried about before, but after having seen Bukamon be unable to digivolve and then Gomamon show absolutely no issue doing so, he couldn't help but to wonder.

"Well, I do have my own theories how it works." Joe noticed the other conversations finishing off and getting quieter. Apparently the subject of digivolution was something everyone, digimon included, were interested in and curious about. "What do you know about digivolution already?"

"Just that you guys have different forms and can go up and down the forms?" Joe replied, leaving out of that he could name the different levels. Tentomon nodded.

"In the wild, digimon slowly gain energy and power over time and eventually digivolve. It took years for us to even go from our baby forms to in-training, none of us were thinking we'd reach rookie form for a long time, that is until you came along. When you were in trouble the first time and the sky opened up, we were all filled with the energy needed to digivolve, and it is my belief that it connected us to you."

"Connected us?" Sora, who was walking on Joe's left side, asked. "That sounds kind of… bad."

"At the very least really weird!" Tai added.

"It can't be bad," Palmon argued, "Not when it brings us so close together and helps us digivolve!"

"Yeah," Joe looked down at Gomamon, "There's worse things than being with some cute monsters."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Wow, I haven't done one of these in a while. Um, not really much to say right now? I have big plans for this fic, but there's a lot of ground I need to cover first.**

 **Anyway, review-replies! Let's go!**

 **Doomsayingfae: I will say, you left me speechless. I hope you had a good night?**

 **Aiko Isari: Thanks so much for reviewing! I really love Jou! He's one of my favorite characters. (I hope you don't mind me too much using the American names :P) The beginning of the fic I'm really proud of :). I've always been real bad at rushing fics, so I'll try and slow it down as best I can.**

 **Guest: You'll just have to wait and see ;)**

* * *

Joe stared at the telephone poles as they passed them. His memory of the Telephone Desert was vague at best, especially since at some point all of the deserts they'd gone through started to blur together. They were all hot, seemingly endless, and had an odd habit of causing contention in the group. Then again, for being friends and having a decent bond with each other, the group also seemed to fight almost constantly.

Not right now though, right now they were all united in a collective battle against the heat.

"This heat is going to ruin my hair!" Mimi complained.

"At least you have a hat." Matt pointed out. "Some of us have to take all the heat straight to our heads."

"We have so much fish, why didn't we think of getting some water?" Tai panted and Agumon nodded his agreement.

"And carry it in what?" Izzy pointed out. "That should really be our next priority, finding something to carry water in."

"Is it just me, or do these telephone polls look off?" Sora commented, and while nobody paused in their trekking, they did take another look.

"None of the wires connect to each other." Joe pointed out. He still didn't really understand the digital worlds weird habit of creating random human objects.

"Odd, perhaps an oversight from the aliens?" Izzy mused.

"Oh, guys, guys you have to see this!" Mimi stopped walking and ushered them all over, holding her compass out for all of them to see. Joe peeked over some of the shorter kids' heads and watched as the compass's arrow spun in one direction and then immediately in the other, at times just straight up spinning in a circle.

"Hmm, interesting," Izzy held his chin in his hand before kneeling down and shuffling the desert sand through his hand. "It looks like the sand it actually made up of bits of meal, perhaps that's what's causing the compass to act oddly."

"This world sure is weird." Sora straightened up, making a face. "I can't wait until we get home."

"I HATE THIS HEAT!" Mimi shouted and Joe sighed, shifting his hold on Gomamon.

"Let's start walking again guys, we aren't getting any cooler standing here."

Eventually, after what felt like hours, they made it to the Yokomon village. The little pink digimon immediately swarmed them, happy to have guests and eager to get to know more about the 'weird digimon'.

"I've never seen anything like you before." One of the Yokomon had pulled away from the group talking to Biyomon. Joe gave a small laugh.

"Well, you see, we're not really from the digital world. We're humans." The Yokomon seemed to consider this before shaking his head.

"No, you have to be a digimon. Maybe some kind of rookie version of an Angemon."

Before Joe could reply to that, a beeping surprised both him and the Yokomon. He looked down and saw his digivice's screen flashing in time with the beeps.

"Sorry, I need to check this out." Joe gave the Yokomon an apologetic smile and the digimon smiled back before hopping over to talk to one of the other digidestined.

"What is it Joe?"Gomamon padded over, shaking some water out of his fur. The first thing the digimon had done when they'd gotten to the village was take a dunk into the water fountain.

"I… don't know." Joe fiddled with it for a moment, a small frown on his face. He didn't remember this every happening last time they were here, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that it wasn't happening to any of the others. Experimentally he tried pressing one of the buttons and sure enough the beeping and light stopped, revealing text on the screen.

 _Joe,_

 _Did you really think we were going to leave you all alone without any help from us? Of course, that's assuming that this actually works out. Time travel isn't exactly something I'm too knowledgeable about. But I'll just have to go off of the hope that you get this, like a last ghost of your past - or future, however you view it._

 _At any rate, if you're getting this then it means we've arrived at the Yokomon village. Ultimately it's up to you how things go, but personally if I were you I'd try not to change too many things on File Island - we learned a lot there. But if you're in Yokomon village, now is a great time to try and make some allies. I know they're just In-Training digimon, but someday they're going to evolve, and we needed all they help we could get._

 _Good luck Joe, and please, give the old us a shot,_

 _Izzy._

Joe dropped his digivice, hand shaking, eyes staring at where it had been in his hands.

"Joe, what happened?" Gomamon asked more seriously. Joe just shook his head, at a loss for words as his mind spun a million miles an hour. Izzy - the Izzy of the future, of Joe's memories - had _known_ about Joe going back in time, had somehow put that message into Joe's digivice.

It also only occured to Joe now that those people were gone. What severity of _gone,_ Joe wasn't sure, but Izzy made it sound like death. ' _A last ghost of your past'._ Joe shook his head again, tears sparking in his eyes. His friends were gone, he was all alone out here in the past with a bunch of people that didn't know him. Joe wiped away some tears, but they were cascading down his face now.

"Joe?"

TK stood off to the side, giving him a concerned look.

"I-" Joe's voice was choked and hoarse, and he shook his head with even more force. "I- I have to go." He stood up abruptly, thankful that the rest of the digidestines were preoccupied by the Yokomon, and took off out of the village, down the hill and back to the desert. He collapsed to the ground there, the hot sand all around him and yet he could care less.

For a long while, he just as there and cried. He was tired, hot, hungry, thirsty, and right now he felt so very alone with the weight of the future looming over him. Izzy made it sound like Joe was supposed to be doing _something,_ like there was a plan he was supposed to be aware of, but he wasn't. Instead he was just confused and sad.

Eventually Joe became aware of Gomamon next to him. The digimon didn't look confused anymore, and he was holding Joe's digivice in his mouth. Joe breathed out slowly, trying to calm down, but it was hard. Hard to get past finding out this thing he was going through was planned, he may've even volunteered for it, he just didn't remember.

"They're-" Joe started before it dissolved into another sob, but even if it hurt he had to say it allowed, "They're gone, Gomamon, they're gone."

Gomamon didn't reply right away,l climbing into Joe's lap and brushing away some of his tears. Joe pulled the digimon close to his chest, the familiar feeling of his fur soothing, and slowly Joe's sobs faded off into silent tears.

"I'm still here," Gomamon comforted, "And they're just not who you knew yet. They will be, one day."

"When did you get so wise?" Joe gave a watery laugh.

"I've been spending too much time around Tentomon." Gomamon laughed.

They stayed like that for a bit, just the two of them in the hot sand. Joe still didn't understand why he was here, in the past. It still terrified him, knowing what was going to happen. But at least the 'future' Izzy was still helping, in a way. He had said not to mess with the events on this island, and to make friends with the Yokomon. Okay. He could do that.

Joe stood back up slowly, looked up to the Yokomon village - just as a wave of pink started piling down.

"What?!" Joe jumped, watching the river of Yokomon running out of their village and to the nearby abandoned ship.

"C'mon!" Gomamon leapt through the sands "Let's go find out what's going on!"

The two of them ran over to the base of the ship, where Tai and Sora were ushering the pink digimon inside.

"What's going on?!" Joe shouted over the panicking Yokomon.

"Joe, there you are!" Mimi peeked out from inside of the ship. "Hurry, get inside!" Not that he had too much of a choice, the stampede of Yokomon pushing him along with them. TK was in there too, sitting on the ground and holding onto Patamon, eyes wide with fear, and Izzy was in a corner hugging his laptop close to his chest and staring out the opening.

"What happened?" Joe repeated.

"Oh, it's terrible!" Palmon cried, "The Meramon's dried up all the water and it coming to burn down the village!"

"Oh." Joe's eyes widened. He had totally forgotten about the Meramon here.

"BIYOMON!" All of the digidestines' heads turned to the cry form Sora and Joe was just able to see when Sora abandoned her job of ushering the Yokomon in and start to run back up to the village where her partner was.

' _If I were you I'd try not to change too many things on File Island.'_

Joe swallowed, thinking of Izzy's message. He trusted the kid genius.

"Good luck Sora." He whispered, watching her go.

"Oh, Sora, get back here!" Mimi begged, though she didn't move from where she was, "It's too dangerous!"

The Yokomon continued to pour in, their voices bouncing off the metal in a great din that Joe could barely think through. Next to him, Mimi had put her hands over her ears, seeming to shrink into herself as if it would make the noise go away. Joe realized belatedly that he was shaking again, nerves kicking in as if realizing what he was planning to do and trying to stop him. He pushed past them and slogged his way to pile of rubble near him. He climbed up as high as he could, bringing his hands to his mouth.

"HEY, CALM DOWN!" A few of the digimon near him got quiet, but most of them were still too frazzled to get quiet.

"PLEASE, CALM DOWN NOW!" Gomamon tried to shout along with him, but still they weren't making much headway. Luckily, Tentomon seemed to catch on what was going on and flew over to them.

" _SUPERSHOCKER!"_

The electric shock rang through the air, momentarily increasing the sound before all the Yokomon quieted down. Even the new ones (which was finally slowed down to a trickle) seemed to take the cue, all eyes on Joe. Tentomon nodded to Joe, zipping back over to over above Izzy's head. Joe clenched his hands, looking at Izzy. Make them allies? Okay, he'd try.

"We've got it under control!" Joe was sure he'd be much more convincing if his voice wasn't shaking, and he winced. He cleared his throat and tried again. "There's no need to panic, okay? We're the D-, we're here for a reason! We'll protect you!"

The ship was quiet, Joe's heart thudding loudly in his ears. The vague sounds of a battle could be heard from outside. Joe looked over to his fellow Digidestined, biting his lip, suddenly not so sure he'd made such a good decision.

"Y-Yeah!" TK piped up, standing up, "We'll beat up all the bad guys!"

Which was when the best possible news arrived.

"Hey guys!" Matt poked his head into the ship and Joe sighed in relief as they were no longer staring at him. "It's safe to come out now! Sora and Birdramon calmed down Meramon!"

All around them, the Yokomon burst out into cheers, running back out the ship and up to the village, carrying all of the digidestined with them. Whether that was on purpose or not, Joe wasn't sure, but he definitely didn't mind not having to walk up the hill again. Meramon was apologizing to the nearby Yokomon.

"I'm so glad all of the little guys are okay." Mimi sighed with relief.

"Yeah, me too." Joe smiled. He looked at the girl next him, far less battle worn than the one he remembered. There was still the sheen of sweat on her brow, reminding him that none of them had had the chance to have any food or water yet. Joe dug through his bag and pulled out one of the water bottles. "Here. I was saving it, but there's plenty of fresh water here to refill it anyway."

"Oh thanks!" Mimi grinned and took it from him, eagerly downing it.

"Ah c'mon, share a bit!" Palmon begged, fingers already digging into the ground. Mimi poured the water over them.

He'd make this work. He had to.


	5. Chapter 5

Joe groaned, feet crying out in pain. Walking and walking and walking was always a staple in the Digiworld, but after months of it Joe had started to at least adapt to it, muscles used to the strain. Now, though, he was back to square one and hating every moment of it.

"Joe, Joe pick me up, I can't walk another step." Gomamon panted, flipping onto his back and wiggling his limbs in the air.

"If I stop to pick you up, I might not start walking again." Joe sighed, going right past his partner. Not to mention, of course, that his arms essentially dead from carrying Gomamon yesterday.

"I'm calling a group break!" Tai declared as they approached a few of sparse trees in the field. Once under the shade they all collapsed to the ground. It was all Joe could do not to fall on his face. Gomamon wasted no time flopping on top of Joe's back, and while the boy let out a huff at the extra weight he didn't complain.

"Why are we even moving so fast? It's not like we're headed anywhere." Mimi complained. Joe pulled out their two water bottles and started passing them around the group. It would probably be the last of their supply until they could find another water source, but now that they knew he had them they continually requested them at every stop. Joe suspected more than a few of them were a little bit upset at him not having shared them during the desert, and to be fair he really should've. His own anxiety over running out had overruled his common sense. That had not been his brightest moment.

He took out his digivice, looking it over. It hadn't done anything since the Yokomon village, but he was able to bring up the message. He'd read it over several times now, but no matter how many times he did, the message never told him why he was here. Having Joe try and make allies though didn't put the future in a positive light. Maybe Izzy figured out that there was no way they could defeat Myotismon? But still, why was it only Joe who still had his memories? After having had time to think of it, he was just more frustrated than afraid.

"Guy's check it out!" Joe looked up to see Tai pointing off into the distance, telescope in hand. "There's smoke stacks over there! And a building!"

"All the way over _there?"_ TK whined, and Matt ruffled his little brother's hair.

"Hey, it's not that far. Maybe there's some people over there, or more nice digimon with food." Matt suggested. The thought of people made the rest of the others stir, though it took a good ten minutes until everybody was back on their feet. Mimi immediately started complaining, but Palmon was able to convince the girl to talk to her about fashion and distract her from the walk.

"All for the best, my laptop needs to be charged. There ought to be an outlet there." Izzy commented, closing his laptop. The walk to the factory was slow and agonizing, at least for most of them. Tai ran ahead for a while until he realized that they weren't keeping up and ended up jogging right in front of the group, urging them to hurry up. Where the kid got his energy from, Joe would love to know.

Joe nodded to himself once they came to the part where the ground dropped down to the factory. Ah yes, he could remember nearly dying here. Not that that really said much, it seemed like every inch of the Digiworld had a life-or-death memory associated with it. At least they made a friend here

"I wonder what they make." Sora wondered as they got to the base of the building.

"I hope it's a way home." Matt sighed.

"Well, let's get going!" Tai urged, leading the group in.

"Hello?! Anybody home?!" Mimi shouted as they walked past moving gears, the lights ahead of them blinking on once they got close. Nobody answered her, and Joe felt a weight sink farther in his stomach. Not messing with time was important, but it felt like he was betraying them, or at least giving them false hope. They were the only people here, possibly the only people to have ever been here.

"What's it building Matt?" TK asked, just barely tall enough to peek over the counter and watch as the moving parts on the conveyor belt put together something.

"I'm… not sure." Matt admitted.

 _*BEEP BEEP BEEP*_

The entire group flinched at the sudden and unexpected beeping noise. Joe's hand flew to his pocket, heart pounding as he quickly slipped it out and hit a random button to get it to shut up.

"What was that?" Sora had wrapped her arms around herself, looking around.

"Must've just been some machine or something!" Joe blurted out a bit too quickly, sweating as everybody was now staring at him. "W-we should keep moving! In case it was an alarm or something!"

"Yeah," Tai said slowly, not quite looking suspicious but not entirely trusting either, "Let's keep going."

Joe sighed with relief as soon as the group started moving again and looked down at Gomamon. He hadn't started walking again, instead staring at something. Joe followed his gaze to see Gabumon staring back. Without a second though Joe broke the tension by scooping Gomamon up, despite his sore muscles.

"Let's just find some people." Joe said, hoping it sounded like he meant it. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Gabumon finally moved and caught back up with Matt.

"What was that about?" Joe whispered. Gomamon shrugged in his arms.

"I don't know. Gabumon been weird for a couple days now."

"Not like we can talk." Joe admitted and Gomamon chuckled.

"Anyway, did you get another message?" After what had happened the last couple minutes, Joe had almost forgotten what the sound of his digivice must've meant.

"Let's see."

Sure enough, displayed on his screen was a new message.

 _Joe,_

 _Andromon is already a good ally of ours after all we've done for him, but I suppose you're going to have to get the Black Gear out of him all over again. I must say, a bit selfishly, that I hope you don't try and take him down with you and Ikkakumon. I'm sure another situation, especially once we get seperated, would force Tentomon to digivolve anyway, but this moment has become so important to me that I don't want it to change._

 _I've gone back here a couple times, but I've never found any useful information. My last recommendation would probably be to just see if you could convince us to rest up a bit - I doubt we'll be able to avoid Monzaemon altogether, but perhaps we'll be able to get away from him this time._

 _Izzy_

"That's… weird." Joe mumbled.

"C'mon Joe, don't fall behind!" Mimi departed from the group before he could elaborate the thought to Gomamon, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back into the group. "If you're not careful you're going to be the first one killed off!"

"Killed off?!" Joe couldn't stop the jolt of fear at the thought. Mimi nodded.

"The robot that was beeping at us!" Joe swallowed as the irony of Mimi's sentence sunk in.

They continued to explore, eventually dividing into two groups. Joe stuck with Tai and Sora, following behind them like a silent shadow as he thought over Future-Izzy's new message. What did Izzy mean by being back here a couple times? As far as Joe remembered, they'd only passed through here once. Maybe Izzy had landed here when they all got seperated?

"Wait, guys stop!" Biyomon put out a wing and Joe nearly ran into Tai's back at the sudden halt.

"Why? What is it?" Sora looked around.

"Can't you guys hear that? Like clanging metal?" Biyomon's voice dropped a few decibels as silence reigned over the group. A shiver went up Joe's spine as something akin to toppling metal reached their ears.

"That can't be good." Tai commented, and yet took a step in the sound's direction.

"I'll see if I can sniff out what it is." Agumon offered, taking the lead.

"Well, what did it say?" Gomamon whispered once Sora and Tai started talking again, still in Joe's arms. Joe handed the digivice to Gomamon, who held it as best he could in his flipper-paws.

"What do you think?" Joe whispered, keeping his voice as low as he could.

"Hmmm. Izzy sucks at explaining things." Gomamon replied definitively and slapped the digivive back into Joe's hand.

"That's it?" Joe hissed. Gomamon tilted his head back so that he was looking at Joe.

"You're still worrying too much Joe! Izzy trusts us to do… whatever this is we're doing. C'mon, lighten up a little."

Lightening up proved to be pretty hard when they came across Andromon. While Tai and Sora ran forward, looking down at the digimon while Biyomon and Agumon explained what they knew about him, Joe hung back. This next part wasn't going to be fun. Izzy, why couldn't he just chang this one little thing?

"We should really move him out of there." Sora said with a determined sound in her voice that made it clear that the 'should really' was actually a 'will'.

"Alright, I'll grab one arm, you grab the other." Tai suggested.

"... I'll help out." Joe reluctantly moved over to Tai's side, grabbing one of the metal arms and pulling on it. It was harder than he remembered, tugging the heavy metal digimon out from beneath the gears. Did they ever find out how this guys even got stuck under there? He was fairly sure that Andromon was the only digimon they'd met here, had he just somehow… slipped?

"Hey, are you alright?" Sora crouched down and patted the digimon's face

"Maybe a real good smack will do it!" Tai suggested, raising his hand. Before Sora could scold him, Joe saw the digimon's eye open up. A trill of fear flood through him and next to him Gomamon stiffened. Oh. He hadn't even realized, but he had instinctually started to do… whatever it was they did that made their digimon digivolve. He slammed down on the feeling, on the unseen internal action that had been going on.

"Intruders!" Andromon grabbed Sora's leg and he stood up, holding her upside down.

"Hey, put her down!" Tai shouted. Both Biyomon and Agumon shot their attacks at Andromon but they had no effect. He threw Sora at Tai, who with the help of Agumon was able to catch her.

"Maybe coming here was a bad idea." Joe suggested, taking as top back and stamping down on the urge to have Gomamon digivolve yet again.

"Agumon, shoot down those beams!" Tai ordered and Agumon aimed a pepperbreath up above Andromon. The metal I-beams came down, trapping him beneath them, and they all rejoiced in the small victory.

"So, we freed him from being trapped just to trap him again?" Gomamon crawled closer to the digimon.

"Let's get out of here, before he gets back up." Sora was already by the door, gesturing for them to follow.

 _No, I can do this,_ words sitting on Joe's tongue that he didn't say. He could _feel_ that Gomamon knew they could - that they _should -_ do something, they had the power to.

Every step they too, metal footsteps followed them, Andromon hot on their tail. They almost got caught on the bridge, but Tai managed to climb into a machine, somehow figure out the controls, and hook Andromon into the air, giving them a chance to run off. Still, the digimon followed them as they reached the second group.

"We need to leave now!" Tai stressed.

"Why, what is it?" Matt seemed to have caught on to the serious tone in Tai's voice, but before Tai could say exactly what, Andromon himself jumped through through the metal floor.

"Intruders, you will be eliminated!" The digimon declared like the villain of some b-rated movie.

"Not if we get you first!" There was now room out here, and Tai wasted no time in digivolving Agumon to Greymon. Matt followed suit, Garurumon charging Andromon. The digimon hardly seemed bothered by their presence, but they were able to move the fight away from the kids. They all watched from the ledge as the two champion digimon did their best. But quite frankly, their best just wasn't enough.

"Izzy, that code from before, I think maybe it's the key to making me digivolve!" Tentomon, coming to some kind of conclusion that Joe had no context for, said urgently to Izzy. Izzy sat down and pulled out his laptop, tapping quickly away, and Joe looked back the the struggling Garurumon and Greymon.

"We can't." Gomamon whispered, putting a flipper over Joe's shoe.

But that was the thing. They _could._ They so easily _could._ When he'd had Gomamon digivolve just to test it out, it had taken almost no effort at all. Back at the Yokomon village, he'd been so busy with the Yokomon that digivolving hadn't even crossed his mind. But here, so useless as he watching some of his best friends getting beat up, it was so hard to just sit back at let it happen. How did Izzy think he could do this? _Why_ did Izzy think he could do this?!

Kabuterimon digivolved, huge and kind of gross looking - bugs had never been a favorite of Joe's - and was able to destroy the black gear in Andromon's leg.

The digimon collapsed to his knees for a moment, a hand to his head, and when he stood up again Kabuterimon was readying another blast, Garurumon and Greymon getting back to their feet, but he put his arms up in the universal sign for surrender. Apparently it held the same meaning in the digimon world.

"Please, let me apologize." He said, and cautiously they all clambered down the flights of the building's stairs to the ground level. "Something was interfering with my system. I'm usually not a violent digimon."

"Sure had us fooled." Tai commented.

"Andromon, do you know how this place came to be?" Izzy stepped forward.

"I'm afraid not. But a group of humans travelling through the digital world… The deserts are dangerous. Here, let me show you so some underground tunnels." Andromon offered.

"You mean we won't have to walk in the sun anymore?" Mimi clasped her hands together, eyes practically sparkling. Andromon nodded.

They filed into the sewer system and Joe hung back, looking up at Andromon. Something about what Andromon had said stuck with him.

"Andromon, have you seen humans here before?" Joe knew for a fact that they were the only humans on this island, in the entire digital world. Maybe Genai, but they weren't entirely sure about that dude. Andromon's gaze lifted, looking up into the sky.

"Many, many years ago. There is a legend of how the digimon Sovereign, protectors of our world, came to be. Most digimon from that time have long since been killed and reborn, memories worn away with each reincarnation. Even my memory, over the years and battles, have become corrupted. But I will never forget their faces." He looked back down at Joe. "Good luck. May your journey prove easier than theirs."


	6. Chapter 6

The sewers were a welcome reprieve from the scorching hike through the desert from the last couple days. The hard concrete isn't terribly easy on the feet, but it's far better than slipping and struggling through sand. The sewer, Joe supposed, was like any of the other human structures they'd come across: highly resembling something you'd find on Earth, but ultimately not serving its purpose or being without its function. In this case, it was a welcome thing, as it was free of the stench that was usually associated with the structure.

Gomamon had jumped into the water almost immediately, clearly overjoyed to be back in his element once more. He was the only water digimon out of the lot and easily had the hardest time keeping up with the group, even if he never complained about it. Joe smiled down at his partner, watching as Gomamon jumped out of the water and twirled in the air before slashing back down.

The rest of the group had remained on the walkway, moods lifted by the odd friendship they'd formed earlier with Andromon and the great turn of fate for their journey, breaking out into camp songs they'd been taught - a few modified to more fit their predicament, like the word 'digimon' shoved into any possible place it could go. Joe hummed along, but found his thoughts mostly preoccupied with what Andromon had said before they'd left. It was… oddly comforting, knowing that there had been other humans here after all. How long ago had that been? Time in the Digital World moved so fast compared to Earth. Had it been years and years ago, or just a few days on Earth?

At any rate, if Joe could be sure of one thing, it was that they weren't here anymore, meaning he was still guilty of letting his friends keep searching for what they wouldn't find.

"Gomamon, you're getting water on me!" Mimi complained as Gomamon did another jump. The digimon swam up to the edge of the sewer, looking up at Mimi with his big and adorable eyes.

"Sorry Mimi." He said, not sounding sorry in the slightest, and the short-lived break in the singing ended as it started back up again. Joe quietly sang along this time, stumbling over a few of the words. They'd changed this song at some point to be more about journeying through the digital world rather than going to your grandparent's house, but that hadn't happened yet. Joe had never been familiar with the original version, but the new version that was yet to be created rolled off his tongue.

"D… do you guys miss home?" Sora's question cut through the song like a hot knife through butter. The walking halted as all attentioned turned to her. She looked embarrassed to have spoken, but soldiered on. "I used to sing while I was doing the laundry, and… I miss it."

"I miss home too." Tai spoke up. He reached over and put a comforting hand on Sora's shoulder. "I miss playing a good game of soccer, and then coming home and taking a nice warm bath." Sora nodded in agreement.

They went around, talking about what they missed from home. Joe blinked, and then blinked again as he realized his eyes were getting warm. He was… crying? He frantically wiped at his eyes as a feeling stirred up in his chest. The ledge that the digidestined were standing on was really only wide enough for single file, but Gomamon climbed up anyway, setting a wet flipper on Joe's knee. Joe blinked more, wiping more at his tears.

"Uh, Joe, are you okay?" Matt asked, a hand hovering just a bit away from Joe.

"Y-yeah," Joe replied, his voice sounding a lot more raw than he wanted it to be. He felt… betrayed.

He'd gone through the homesickness, he'd been away from home. And then Joe had finally gotten home and been able to sleep in his own bed for a few days, and wear different clothes than the set he'd worn over and over because that was all he'd had, just to have it all yanked away from him, right out from under his feet.

"Hey, it's okay Joe, we're gonna get home." Tai promised. "Then you can get back to doing homework or whatever it is you do."

Joe have a wet chuckle, trying once more to dry his eyes.

"Uh, do you guys smell that?" TK looked behind them in the sewer, nose wrinkled up in disgust. Gabumon sniffed the air and then growled, lips pulling back into a snarl and uttering a name that made Joe almost take off running right away, instinct pulling at his legs.

"Numemon."

Ah, yes, now Joe remembered why they didn't stay down in tunnels more often.

When they made it out of the sewer and into the safety of sunlight, there weren't many trees around, but rather than being in a desert it was more like a prairie or field (was there a difference?). The gentle warmth was actually welcome, coming out of the cool sewers, and they all stretched out before choosing a direction and walking. Joe didn't point out that they still had no idea where they were trying to get to.

It was starting to look familiar when they come across the vending machines. Izzy was quick to point out that, like the phone booths, they probably wouldn't work and also weren't plugged in in the first place. Joe shrugged. While a lot of things didn't work, they still sometimes held random and useful items inside.

There was nothing useful in these.

Just more Numemon.

"You know, I think I might hate Numemon." Joe huffed as he ran away, the disgusting digimon right at his and Gomamon's heels.

"I second that." Gomamon agreed, flopping around as fast as he could - a surprising speed, in fact, considering the practice he'd had.

They reached some trees and switched tactics to hiding, Joe picking Gomamon up and doing their best to not loudly gasp for air. For a while they could hear the Numemon getting closer and as Joe's anxiety mounted he could almost feel Gomamon preparing to digivolve. Then they started to run away from them and Joe sighed in relief… only to stiffen again as big thundering footsteps made themselves known.

"... maybe it's somebody friendly?" Gomamon suggested.

"Nothing is friendly at this point of our journey!" Joe snapped back, squeezing Gomamon tighter and starting to follow after the Numemon, away from whatever digimon was after them.

"COME TO TOY TOWN!"

"Not Monzaemon!" Joe groaned.

They made it back to the edge of the forest before Monzaemon caught up with them, the big teddy bear easily keeping pace with his huge strides. That was also how far Joe got before he tripped on a root, falling forward and sending his digimon tumbling out of his arms.

"YOU'LL HAVE LOTS OF FUN AT TOY TOWN!" Monzaemon insisted.

"No I won't!" Joe shouted back, scrambling to get his feet under him.

"HEARTS ATTACK!"

"Joe, watch out!" Gomamon jumped up onto Joe's shoulders and then into the air. The pulse of their connection, of digivolution, flared up between them, but it was too late as Joe's partner became trapped in a blue, heart-shaped bubble, sapping Gomamon's energy. Distantly, Joe could feel it through their bond.

"Gomamon!" Joe shouted uselessly, just barely dodging one of the other blue bubbles as they continued to come towards him. Gomamon layed almost motionless in the bubble but managed to scrounge up enough energy to look at Joe and shake his head weakly. Joe swallowed down a lump in his throat. It'd be okay, this had turned out okay last time. "I'll come get you." Joe whispered, a promise, and then ran again.

He wasn't sure how long he ran before he was sure Monzaemon was no longer behind him. The agonizing dullness faded in time, but Joe still felt like panicking himself. He'd had Gomamon to rely on these past few days stuck in the past, but now he was without him and it felt wrong and very very lonely.

"What am I going to do?" Joe sat down on the ground, staring at his feet. He was just a human. Without Gomamon, he was pretty useless.

"Oh, Palmon, what are we going to do now?"

Joe sat up as he heard Mimi nearby, echoing his own thoughts.

"Mimi?" He called out.

"Joe?" Mimi and Palmon, uncaptured by Monzaemon, came to him and Joe could breathe again. Right, it was Mimi who had saved them. "Joe, you're okay! Oh, we thought that terrible teddy bear had attacked everybody!"

"I think he has." Joe said. "Gomamon got captured."

"We have to save them!" Palmon said with conviction, but then looked down as the admitted, "But… we don't know where Toy Town is."

"Well, it must be where he brought Gomamon." Joe mused. Now that he had Mimi and Palmon here, he felt himself settling back into the bit of confidence he'd gained - almost by accident - over the past few months. "So all I have to do is track my connection to him."

"... you're what?" Mimi tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"You know, when you just," And Joe closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath. There, right where he ended, the faintest smell of salt water and the crashing of waves on a shore. With absolute certainty, he pointed in a direction. "They're that way."

"How'd you learn to do that?" Mimi asked, eyes practically sparkling.

Joe blinked.

… where had he learned how to do that?

And yet he'd done it all the same, and he knew, he knew that Gomamon was in that direction, and that he wasn't in any real danger.

"Andromon." He said instead. Mimi made an 'o' face and nodded, believing it.

It wasn't much of a walk to Toy Town, and even without Joe's weird tracking abilities they probably would've found it in no time. It was a very colorful and fun looking town, and Joe wondered how much of it worked. It'd be nice if after they got the black gear out of Monzaemon, they could take a real shower or something.

Oh man, they'd be able to take a real shower when they got to Devimon's, wouldn't they?

Would it be worth letting himself and his friends walk straight into a trap just for the free food and shower and a chance to clean their clothes?

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

Joe flinched violently, flailing as he tried to grab his digivice. In his efforts, it fell out of his hands and was picked up by Mimi. Joe tensed, not wanting to look suspicious by grabbing it from her hands but also knowing some kind of wise message must be displayed on its screen. What did Izzy have to tell him about this place?

"'Mimi Time'?" Mimi read off the screen.

"Oh, uh, yeah, y'know, because it's your time to shine!" Joe said and now threw caution to the wind, plucking the device out of her hands.

"My time to shine?" Mimi repeated. Joe was saved from having to answer right away as the other digidestined ran past them, each chased by toys, distracting Mimi and giving Joe a moment to surreptitiously read the message. 'Mimi Time' was just the name of the message, and Joe sighed in relief that Mimi hadn't hit a button to open it up.

 _Hey Joe!_

 _I managed to pull Izzy away from the computer for a bit! Honestly, he's lucky he has us or I don't know how he would've made any friends glued to the computer like he is._

 _This should show up when you get to Toy Town. Oh, I can't wait for that to happen again, it really was my first big moment, y'know? You never forget the first time your digimon makes it to champion, that's for sure!_

 _You'll probably be too busy being chased by toy soldiers or something to read this right away, but don't you worry! Past me and Togemon will take care of it :)_

 _3 Mimi_

Joe felt a smile twitch across his face as he read the message. He wondered what it was Mimi had had to do to get Izzy away long enough to mess with his stuff. He could imagine her doing something crazy like stealing his digivice. That was their Mimi, stubborn when she knew what she wanted.

There was no wisdom this time, no advice, and in a way it was nice and freeing. It wasn't as if there was much he could do right now anyway. Like Mimi said, if things had gone as they had in the 'past', Joe would've been even more useless, under the influence of Monzaemon's attack.

"What's wrong with them?" Mimi asked. Joe shrugged.

"Must've been Monzaemon. C'mon, Gomamon's this way."

Mimi and Palmon followed as he led them through the streets of Toy Town until they reached a room with a large locked chrest. Some tension in Joe eased at finding his partner.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out!" Mimi promised. "Then Biyomon, or Agumon, or Gabumon can digivolve and take out mean old Monzaemon."

"I don't think that'll work." Agumon disagreed. "Even if we got out of here, I don't think I can digivolve right now."

"Me either," Gabumon agreed, "I just don't have the energy to. Something's wrong."

"It's up to you, Mimi." Tentamon buzzed.

"But Palmon hasn't digivolved yet! How do we know she will?" Mimi looked desperately at the chest and then at Joe.

"It's Mimi Time." Joe said. He put a hand out, intending to set it on her shoulder for reassurance, but stopped short as he remembered that they technically hadn't know each other all that long. "Mimi, you're the only one who can do this."

"Joe, you really mean it?" Mimi clasped her hands together, eyes imploring. Joe nodded.

"Of course I do. Now let's go face that digimon."

oOo

Toy Town did not, as it turned out, have running water. It did have electricity, though, but there wasn't much use for that.

They did stay in town for the night, as they probably wouldn't find any other beds on this island (though with the digital world, you never knew what you'd find). Monzaemon was a great host once the dark gear was out of him. There was also no good food - plenty of plastic fake food - so they still had to use some of their supply.

Sitting around a small table made for much younger kids and stuffed toys to sit at, Mimi recounted the fight repeatedly in great detail.

"-and even Joe knew I was destined for greatness today!" Mimi said. Joe smiled.

"I mean, we are the digidestined." Joe pointed out.

"... the what?" Izzy asked.

"Uh, y-yknow, because we have digimon, and it kind of seems like we were destined to be here or something. Uh, nevermind, forget I said that." Joe tried to brush it off. Right, right, they didn't hear that word for a bit longer.

"I like it!" Tai decreed.

There was a chorus of agreement.

Joe hoped this wouldn't make some kind of huge change in fate or something.


	7. Chapter 7

Over the course of the next day, the word 'Digidestined' was put into no fewer than four songs and attempted to be forced into five others. As with the past few days, a direction was picked and they started walking. The only clear landmark was Infinity Mountain, and thus the direction for the day was towards Infinity Mountain. The weather grew colder as they went, impossibly making Joe long just a bit for the heat of the desert, and the open fields gave way to snow-packed grounds. There was a kind of trail they were following that lacked most of the snow, but Joe could feel his toes getting cold in his shoes nonetheless. The extra blanket he'd brought along was passed to whoever was coldest at the time, spending the most time swaddled around TK at Matt's insistence.

They came across the hot springs, as well as the refrigerator full of eggs. Joe didn't object this time, knowing the eggs were perfectly good. They could probably keep some cooked eggs in the bag for a day or two. Joe brought out the leftover fish that they still had and divided it up to go with the eggs. It probably wouldn't be good if they kept it for too long. The hot spring was too hot to be in, and the air around it was a bit uncomfortable with the humidity, but it did keep them warm.

"I'll go see if there's a cave that's connected to the hot springs." Joe volunteered, trying to remember where it was that they had stayed last time. Nobody stopped him, just reminded him to make sure it'd be big enough for them and their digimon to fit in.

He found the cave, or at least a cave, but instead of returning to the group, Joe sat down on the cave floor, leaning against the wall and letting out a slow breath.

"What's wrong, Joe?" Gomamon flopped down next to Joe. Joe shook his head at first, needing a minute to get his thoughts in order.

"You remember this place, right? Infinity Mountain?" Joe asked. Gomamon nodded.

"It's where we first digivolved!" He said, puffing out his chest proudly.

"And where we found out that we're on an island." Joe reminded him. "I… I don't have to climb that mountain, Gomamon. We don't have to. We already know what we'll find at the top. I should stay down here, make sure nothing happens to others. I'm the oldest and I know what going on, what we're in for, so I need to make sure things are going okay and, and," Joe hit the cave wall and then yelped, cradling his hand.

"Joe, you need to calm down. What's wrong?" Gomamon crawled up onto Joe's lap, making it hard to avoid looking the digimon in the eyes.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Gomamon." Joe sobbed, wrapping his arms around his digimon. "Because I want to go back up there, but there's no point in it anymore. I'm already close to you, I already know that we won't find anything up there. And I don't know what the others expect from me - the others from the future, from when we're from. How am I supposed to know what the right thing to change and what isn't if I don't even remember why we were sent back here?"

Gomamon let Joe hold onto him for a while.

"Would a walk help?" Gomamon asked. "Like a walk up to the top of a really tall mountain?"

"There's no point." Joe repeated.

"So what? There's no point in anything on File! Until we get to Server, all we have to worry about is Devimon. So let's go for a walk." Gomamon smiled up at Joe and Joe managed to smile back.

"I'm glad you're here." Joe sighed and scratched Gomamon under his chin.

"Yeah, you're pretty useless without me." Gomamon teased.

"Hey!"

oOo

When they got back to the group, Matt and Tai were fighting about whether or not they should climb the mountain. Joe stepped in as the voice of reason that it should be put to a vote by the group - after they'd all gotten a good night's rest. It didn't completely satisfy either Matt or Tai, but it did put an end to the argument for the time being, which at this point in their journey was all Joe could ask of Matt and Tai.

He knew Matt well by now. His time spent at Digitamamon's restaurant, Matt sticking with him for almost the entire time, had given him an appreciation for the other. He now understood Matt's thinking, at least for this fight. How did nobody else notice how his eyes kept darting over to TK? Tai was as reckless as he was courageous, but Matt had TK to look after, so he had to tread carefully about both of those things.

Joe waited until he was sure everybody was asleep before slipping out of the cave, writing a message in the dirt that he'd be gone and would be back soon, so please don't leave without him. Of course, Joe mused to himself, even if they did go somewhere without him, File was a relatively small island and he could probably find some digimon or other that would be able to help him track them down. Gomamon didn't have a great sense of smell like the others, but maybe Leomon-

Oh right. They didn't know Leomon yet.

"So… what do we do when we get to the top?" Joe asked, filling in the silence as he and Gomamon climbed the mountain. Despite what others may think when looking at Joe, he actually did enjoy hiking. He was just usually so busy with homework that he didn't get out much. Gomamon struggled a bit more with the climb than Joe did, but refused to by carried. It was odd, the difference between Joe now and the Joe of his past. When he had climbed this mountain the first time, it had been with a weird monster that refused to leave his side. Now, it was with what Joe considered one of his best friends.

"Look at File Island, try and see if we can spot a Whamon out in the sea." Gomamon did a pretty good approximation of shrugging despite not having shoulders.

They stopped at one point, Joe pulling out some boiled eggs he'd taken with them. He wondered to himself if Gomamon was his only friend. Oh, he did intend - hope - that the others would become his friends again. But would the bonds be the same? Would there ever be a time where a message came from Izzy that he was in the clear to tell them he was from the future? Or would their new relationship be built on lies?

"Huh." Joe said, a thought occuring to him as he pulled out his digivice. "There's no message this time."

"Is that bad?" Gomamon asked. Joe's brow wrinkled, thinking the question over as his digivice remained silent.

"I'm not sure." He settled on.

They got started again shortly afterwards. It was a long hike, but the past few days had been filled with long hikes and Joe knew that this wouldn't change for most of their journey.

They were almost to the top when Joe saw the digimon.

He grabbed Gomamon and ran behind the nearest boulder, hiding from the other digimon's line of view.

"What is it now?' Gomamon wiggled in Joe's arms until Joe finally let go and peeked out from their only line of defence. "Oh, him again."

"We're supposed to be going for a walk, not fighting Unimon again!" Joe hissed. Gomamon rolled his eyes.

"It's just Unimon, Joe!" Gomamon pointed out. "We can take him."

"I just don't think we should go walking into danger if we can avoid it." Joe whispered, still trying to stay quiet despite Gomamon not following the effort.

"Where was that attitude when we were at Andromon's factory?" Gomamon smirked.

"I- that was-!" Joe blushed as he realized he had no defence for himself.

"And anyway, doesn't Unimon deserve to be freed from the black gear? And I'd finally get to fight as Ikkakumon again!" Joe bit his lip. Gomamon made a good point with the black gear…

"Excuse me, what seems to be-"

"Gomamon get him!"

Joe yelped the attack order and threw himself as far from the voice as possible, back hitting the side of the mountain. The flash of Gomamon digivolving momentarily blinded him, and then there was a mountain of white fur between Joe and Unimon.

"Now, is there really a need for that? We don't need to fight."

The confusion in the air was almost palpable.

Joe climbed up Ikkakumon's fur to sit on the digimon's head and look down at Unimon, feeling much safer up there than walking about to face the unicorn-like digimon head on.

"So… you're not going to attack us?" Joe squinted down at Unimon, holding tightly onto Ikkakumon's fur.

"Should I? You're in more danger of falling from Infinity Mountain than you are in my company." Unimon assured them.

"We're just climbing the mountain." Joe promised. "... are you sure you don't feel some kind of unexplainable anger or need to attack other digimon?"

"Oh! Are you referring to the black gears that have been cropping up all around the island?"

"You've noticed the black gears?" Joe gaped at Unimon, who sniffed.

"I'm not blind, and this is my home after all. I will admit, though, I didn't notice a human child had arrived. I've heard some of the prophecies, of course, but I never thought I'd see one during my current cycle." Unimon admitted.

"Children, actually." Joe corrected.

"The Chosen Children." Unimon said, more to himself than them. He opened his mouth as if to add something to the thought. Joe felt more than saw Ikkakumon tense beneath him and then surged forward, knocking into Unimon.

Knocking Unimon out of the way.

The lack gear sank into Ikkakumon mere inches away from where Joe was hanging on.

Ikkakumon roared in pain, bucking Joe off of him, and Joe screamed as he felt something rip into, something dark and cold and sharp. The harm wasn't physical, wasn't external, but it was too painful to not be real.

Joe didn't hit the hard rocks of the mountains, nor did he fall off the edge to his doom. Instead, Unimon flew underneath him and it was only thanks to the past few months that Joe was able to instinctually grab the digimon's neck.

"He saved me." Unimon whispered. Joe only stare at his partner as Ikkakumon roared in pain. "I'm sorry that I cannot do the same… Aerial Attack!"

Joe grabbed the digimon's mane and pulled back forcefully, redirecting the beam to fire above Ikkakumon, just barely grazing his horn instead of hitting him full-on.

"You can't hurt him! He's my partner!" Joe shouted.

"Partner?" Unimon repeated. "I'm sorry, but the black gear-"

"I can get it out!" Joe insisted. "Get me on his back and I can get it out!"

"Human-"

"NO! He's my partner, and he's fighting it, okay?! I can do this!" Joe dig his fingers into the hair of Unimon's mane.

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

Unimon flew out of the way of Ikkakumon's attack, though there was little need. It was well off target, and it only served to prove to Joe that Ikkakumon was still fighting against the dark gear. He could feel it, the war going on inside of him.

Joe didn't wait for Unimon to try and convince him otherwise. He threw his weight forward and Unimon, taken by surprise, had no choice but to go forward. When they were over Ikkakumon, Joe jumped off the digimon's back and landed on Ikkakumon's head.

The roar coming from Ikkakumon was defeaning, and Joe screamed back in sync. He grabbed the gear and pulled, yanking on it desperately. It barely budged.

"I've got you Ikkakumon! You can't leave me here alone!" Joe tugged at the gear again. What was he thinking? He wasn't a digimon. He should've let Unimon attack, that usually got rid of the black gears. Except, that time that Tai had mentioned…

Joe pulled his digivice out of his pocket and held it up to the black gear.

The pain in his chest got worse.

Ikkakumon was howling.

The light from the digivice warred with the dark energy radiating off the gear.

And then it was over.

Ikkakumon stopped bucking beneath Joe, stilling, and then saying in his gruff but lovable voice,

"Joe?"

And Joe sobbed into the digimon's white fur.

"You're okay, you're okay." Joe said, muffled by the fur in his mouth. He could care less. It didn't matter. What mattered was how close he had been just seconds ago to possibly losing Ikkakumon, to the darkness overtaking his partner.

"I'm right here Joe, it's okay." Ikkakumon soothed.

"I've never seen something like that before." Unimon had landed back on the mountain path. "The stories are true, then, of the strength of the chosen children and their digimon."

"Yeah, yeah they are." Joe wasn't letting go of Ikkakumon anytime soon.

"Don't worry Joe, we'll save you!"

Joe sat up at the scream, turning to face the sound of flapping wings and pounding feet. Garurumon made quick work of climbing the mountain as Birdramon flew above, rearing back like she always did right before using meteor wing.

"It's okay, it's just Gomamon!" Joe waved his arm before something else bad could happen. "Well, I mean it's Ikkakumon but he'll probably be Gomamon again soon."

Sora and Matt got off of their digimon, regarding Ikkakumon with caution.

"Everything okay? We saw your message." Sora said. Joe wanted nothing more than to stay on Ikkakumon forever, safe on top of digimon and sure that his digimon was safe as well. With much reluctance, he slid down to stand on the same level as his fellow digidestines. He kept a hand tangled in Ikkakumon's white fur, then scooping up Gomamon as the digimon dedigivolved.

"Yeah, we're okay now." Joe said. He didn't like how shaky his voice still sounded, and he knew his eyes must've still been red.

"What were you thinking, going off on your own?" Matt demanded. Joe recognized the worry in Matt's anger, and it was comforting.

"I was thinking that all us climbing Infinity Mountain was a risk, but just one of us would be fine." Joe replied. Matt frowned.

"You should've asked one of us to come for backup. What happened that made Gomamon digivolve?"

"Just got spooked by Unimon." Joe replied, holding Gomamon closer to his chest. "I know you're upset at me, but can it wait until we're at the top? We're almost there."

Unimon lead the way, at the digimon's own insistence. Sora and Matt acquainted themselves with him, and Joe hungback, talking to Gomamon in a hushed whisper..

"I almost lost you." Joe whispered.

"You didn't almost lose me, I was right there." Gomamon reminded him.

"But what if I couldn't get the gear out? What if I had to let Unimon, had to let him," Joe couldn't finish the sentence.

"Oh dang it Joe! Ah man, you guys go ahead, Joe dropped his digivice." Gomamon shouted to the others. Matt raised one of his eyebrows, but didn't call Gomamon's lie, just nodded and kept going. Gomamon wriggled around, but not trying to get out of Joe's arms this time and just to reposition himself to better look at Joe. The digimon's olive eyes were so soothing, so grounding. Joe's breathing hadn't quite found its rhythm again, but looking into Gomamon's eyes he managed to stop being on the edge of a panic attack.

"Gomamon?"

"Joe, we were sent back here for a reason. It has got to be to change things. We changed something today, and maybe the results weren't easy to deal with, but maybe we can't just take all the easy ways." Gomamon said.

"But at the risk of your life?" Joe frowned.

"I'd come back, and it was fine this time." Gomamon reminded him.

"I can't do this without you."

"Neither can I."

Joe couldn't change everything, wouldn't change everything. Today had proved that just being him with the knowledge he had seemed to be able to change events, and not necessarily for the better.

But if what they were doing was going to be the easy, straight-forward path, they wouldn't be here.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: a couple quick notes before I start the chapter! First: there was a chapter posted today before this one, so if you missed that go ahead and check that out. Second: I'm going to start responding to reviews from now on :D**

 **Acacia Sgt: I actually prefer AO3 to fanfiction these days, but neat that you found me on there :D There wasn't a message last chapter (or, spoilers, this chapter) but there will be more and they will be from other people. Eventually, I'm planning ot have them reveal just a bit more about Joe being sent back.**

 **Guest: Listen, time travel fics are one of my favorite kinds. I literally have three different ones i've written.**

* * *

When they got attacked by Ogremon and Leomon, Joe knew their short-lived peace on File was almost over.

For it was a kind of peace, even if the others weren't aware of it yet. Sure, they were under attack a lot by digimon that their partners kept insisting were supposed to be nice but ended up attacking them because of the black gears. But up until the end here, when Devimon became aware of their presence on the island, they weren't being actively attacked, actively hunted down by others. Sure they didn't have a solid goal they were trying to achieve other than 'get back home',but they also weren't on the huge continent of Server trying to find seven needles in a huge haystack. Back here, where there were only maybe three malicious digimon.

Joe's heart sinks as Ogremon blocks their path on the mountain trail, and then Leomon does the same on the other side. He's not entirely sure why their digimon keep informing them that a digimon is a good guy, when every single one of them have had black gears in them. The effect of being attacked is immediate, Joe's adrenaline spiking and flashes coming from six of their digimon as they digivolve. The bonds between the digidestined themselves are still new, but their digimon have known each other for years and years, not needing to talk before splitting up, three to each enemy.

The two digimon leave just as soon as they appeared, just like last time, and it leaves Joe wondering why they were attacked at all. Had Devimon been trying to get a feel for their strength?

Five of their own six digimon de-digivolve, exhausted and starving. Gomamon hung in a bit longer, but when he's sure there's no other enemies he joins the others at rookie level. Oddly enough, he also looked tired. Joe knew that digivolving twice in a day could be taxing on digimon, but they'd had a meal between now and then and they'd certainly maintained a digivolution for longer amounts of time before.

"We should get out of here before they come back." Sora said, looking around like Ogremon and Leomon would appear out of thin air. They were digimon, so who knew? Maybe they could.

Joe stayed quiet as they continued walking, now all on edge. He suggested they stop and fish a few times, but Tai and Matt both agreed (for once) that they should try to put as much distance between themselves and the two hostile digimon as possible, and that wherever they settled down for the night would be the best place to forage from. Usually Joe would be all for waiting until they had a 'camp' to help make sure nobody got lost, but knowing where they may end up staying for the night made him nervous.

"I wonder why Leomon is helping Ogremon." Patamon was clearly still bothered by this. Looking around the group, in fact, it was clear that all of the digimon found this to be an extremely concerning fact.

"Ogremon's always been a jerk. That's why they've always been enemies! Because Leomon is the best!" Palmon agreed, and the others nodded vigorously.

"You seem to know a lot about Leomon." Izzy noted.

"He used to check up on us." Tentomon explained.

"We waited a long time for you to come, but many of the digimon would stop by and make sure we were okay." Gabumon added. "But especially Leomon."

"I can still remember him bringing us big piles of fruit and telling us what human children would look like." Agumon closed his eyes and licked his lips, the thought of food undoubtedly making his hunger all the more sharp.

"He probably has a black gear in him." Izzy reasoned. This didn't seem to do much to comfort the digimon.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll run into him again and we'll kick that gear right out of him like we've done to all the others!" Tai grinned, and the digimon smiled back, hopeful.

The sun lowered in the sky, casting the warm colors of a sunset over the trees. The rhythm of their footsteps had grown slower over the corse of the day, and while they stopped and rested a time or two there was an odd fear that if they stopped they wouldn't be able to start again - mostly because the digimon were clearly very tired. Joe gave them some of the eggs they'd cooked last night, but it was clear that a full meal was needed.

"Is that… a mansion?" Tai squinted into the woods.

"Uh," Joe said rather eloquently.

"Oh, maybe it's a hotel!" Mimi said brightly. "Free breakfasts, room service, mints on your pillows,"

"I highly doubt we'll find any of that." Izzy shot her down and Mimi pouted her lips.

"Actually, I think it _is_ a mansion." Sora said as they got closer to the building. The truth sat like a stone in Joe's stomach. This was something he could remember clearly, sharply in focus as he urged the others to go inside, that it'd be fine. It had been him, the eldest who was supposed to watch over the others, keep them safe, that had brought them to the belly of the beast.

"I…" Joe started by stopped himself quickly. Patamon needed to digivolve to Angemon, right? And they were going to run into Devimon eventually. If not through this then surely there'd be some other trap lying in wait somewhere on the island. But… he could prevent so much right here. That terrible feeling of being split up, the not-knowing that came with it. Maybe even poor little TK's pain at Angemon's death.

"Oh, I hope they have a hot tub." Mimi clasped her hands together.

"I don't know, doesn't this seem kind of fishy?" Tai gave the building a skeptical look.

"Well, so far nothing here has served its intended purpose, so it's probably just an empty building." Izzy reasoned.

"I'll bet there's another evil digimon inside." Matt folded his arms, not convinced by Mimi or Izzy.

"It would be the perfect place to rest for the night." Izzy pointed out. "And who knows, may there'll be an outlet inside I can use to charge my laptop."

"I… I don't think we should stay here!" Joe finally said, practically shaking from his previous indecision. He still wasn't entirely sure this was the right decision still.

"See, even Joe's on our side." Tai smirked.

"Uh, guys?" TK said, voice small and soft.

"If you guys want to sleep on the cold hard ground again, be my guest, but I'm going in! We haven't met a digimon we can't handle yet anyway!" Mimi stopped her foot, mind clearly made up about this.

"Guys?"

"We need to stay together, and we need to stay safe! And something about this place doesn't sit right for me." Matt remained insistent.

"I have the worst feeling about this place!" Joe took a step away from the doors of the mansion, hoping the others would follow him away.

"Guys!" TK shouted, stopping the argument abruptly. When all eyes turned to him pointed to their digimon. "I don't think we have a choice, unless you're strong enough to carry Agumon."

Joe blinked and looked down. They'd all been too wrapped up to notice that all of their digimon hadn't been able to keep standing, or even stay awake now that they had stopped walking. Even Gomamon, who Joe was carrying in his arms, was sagging bonelessly, chest moving in slow movements and mumbling in his sleep. The only one left standing - or flying in his case - was Patamon, who still hadn't digivolved yet. Even knowing that the digimon would digivolve in the fight against Devimon (hopefully, if Joe hasn't already messed that up) it still was something that worried Joe.

"Oh." Joe said, and it was echoed by Sora, Tai, and Matt. Only maybe half of the digimon were small and light enough to carry. Agumon, Biyomon, Tentomon, and Gabumon were totally out of the question, especially for going any reasonable distance.

"We'll stay on guard." Izzy promised. "Let's get them inside."

Joe went up to the bed rooms, putting Gomamon on the bed and placing some of the cooked eggs with him for when he woke up. He stopped before going back down to see the others, running a hand over his digimon's head and scratching the bright orange fuzz. Gomamon stirred, blinking eyes open slowly and then yawning, stretching out.

"Mmm, morning already?" Gomamon hummed and rolled onto his back.

"Are you feeling okay?" Joe said instead of replying, setting a hand to Gomamon's forehead. He wasn't really sure if digimon could get colds (they were just data, surely they could get a virus) or if they'd show the same symptoms as humans if they did get one, but it was all the knowledge he was armed with so he used it.

"Just tired and hungry." Gomamon flapped his paw around until he found one of the eggs and stuffed it into his mouth.

"You're usually a lot stronger than this." Joe frowned. Ikkakumon was strong enough that Joe didn't hesitate to ride the digimon through the water, not worried about him losing strength and de-digivolving while they were still far from shore. He trusted the digimon enough to give both him and TK - and if something happened to that kid while under Joe's watch, Matt wouldn't end Joe himself - a ride when all the ferries were down.

"You know how you were complaining about how all the stamina you've built up is gone?" Gomamon flipped back onto his stomach, grabbing another egg.

" _Oh._ " Joe sat back. That, yeah, that made sense. While their connection - their ability to digivolve essentially on a whim - remained intact, both of their forms still were the same as they had been the last time through this journey.

"Yeah." Gomamon stuck out his tongue, showing that he too was displeased with this. "I see you decided to let us stay the night at Devimon's mansion."

"Actually, I lost the fight on that one." Joe admitted. "I didn't want to go through all of this again, but you all fell asleep so we've decided to stay the night." Joe sighed.

"Well, at least I have food and we'll get a good night's sleep." Gomamon said cheerily.

"You stay up here and rest, I'm going to go downstairs and see if I can convince the others to eat some real food." Joe patted Gomamon's head once more.

"If you insist." Gomamon snuggled down into the blanket, eyes closed in clear comfort. Even if it was just created from their imagination, what was the harm in enjoying a good restful sleep?

oOo

Joe managed to convince the others to wear their normal clothes to bed. Well, all except for Mimi, who was absolutely overjoyed to have something else to wear and insisted that Joe was worrying over nothing. He hadn't been able to get the others to eat anything, though, as they'd all said they didn't think there was anything wrong with the food, and even Joe had been convinced to eat some of the imaginary feast. Fake or not, it tasted amazing.

Joe barely managed to go to sleep, with the knowledge that they'd be woken rudely in the middle of the night rattling around in his brain. Gomamon showed no such problem. Joe found himself staring at his partner for most of the night. They usually slept with Gomamon pressed reassuringly up against Joe's back, but Joe turned around so he could look at his digimon.

How could Gomamon be so calm with what was going on? Of knowing what was happening, knowing they could stop so many problems but the eternal question of _should_ they stop the events that had made them all grow strong enough to face what was to come plaguing Joe with every second forward in time they went. Gomamon slept easily.

Gomamon knew they'd made it through this once, so they could again.

But Joe was worried about what they were supposed to do _better._

Joe slung an arm across Gomamon, and the digimon snuggled closer to Joe. It was going to be fine. Joe had to believe that everything was going to be fine.

(And if it wasn't, if he messed something up or didn't change things enough… could he go through this again?)

oOo

Leomon stood at the edge of the ruined mansion, watching as the young human and his Agumon drifted away. The child was safer out there than he was here with Devimon. Leomon slowly turned to face Devimon, knife still in his hand, knowing that he didn't have enough strength to take on the digimon on his own.

"You will not harm the children." Leomon growled, getting ready to fight.

"You weren't the only ones to know of the legend, you know." Devimon said, almost casual, so assured in his strength. "I always knew there would be a day when the prophesied digidestined would return to this world. And I am prepared."

"Leomon!" Before either Leomon or Devimon could move, there was a shout, and Leomon looked up to the skies as Unimon, so rarely seen near others or far from the very peak of Infinity Mountain, descended down at top speed.

"Unimon, get out of here!" Leomon roared, taking a step closer back to the ledge, farther from Devimon.

"Live to fight another day!" Unimon insisted, stopped to hover by the ledge. "The children need us!"

Leomon looked back at Devimon and Ogremon. Leomon was a proud digimon, made for fighting, for protecting the weak.

And he realized he wouldn't be able to hold Devimon off much at all.

He jumped onto Unimon's back and let the digimon fly him off towards the floating fragments of their home.


	9. Chapter 9

**Guest: I'm glad it ended up being something that interested you! I have a lot of plans for the story, but more than anything i have to get there first :P**

 **Duskrider: Thank you, I'm very proud of that :) My biggest problem writing time travel fics is that I like how canon went but also trying to change things because the timetraveler needs a reason if he just let things stay terrible**

 **Acacia Sgt: Unimon is forced into being a bit more of an active roles. It doesn't change a ton, surprisingly, and not much that Joe has an active role in. i might end up writing a little one shot for what Leomon is up to in this round now that he's not busy trying to kill the kids**

* * *

Joe was less than surprised when he woke up to find the luxurious mansion in ruins and then sent flying through the air. He was less well-rested than he had been last time, barely getting any sleep last night, but adrenaline did wonders to keep one awake. He wasn't one of the lucky ones who landed on an island, and that didn't change this time.

The bed frame hit the water and sent up waves, some of the sea water splashing up onto the mattress and soaking the comforter, though both were not revealed to be thread-bare anyway. Joe shoved the comforter off of the bed and into the water - and accidently shoved the emergency bag with it.

"Shoot!" Joe jumped into the water after it. He managed to grab the handle and with some difficulty climbed back onto the bed. Most of the things in it were fine - the blanket would dry out, the first-aid kit and accompanying medicines were protected in their cases - but the few eggs they'd had left had been lost to the water. Even if Joe did pull them out, they now had sea water all over them. "Well, there goes the food."

"Don't worry, we'll just fish some more." Gomamon was completely unbothered by the turn of events.

"But now we won't have anything when we get back to Biyomon." Joe border-line pouted, watching a fish swim up and bite some of the egg.

"We won't have to worry about that! We'll just go to the island, pick up Sora and Biyomon, and then swim back to Infinity Mountain." Gomamon said simply and succinctly. They hadn't discussed that last night - they hadn't discussed any kind of plan - and it threw off Joe for a moment as he stared at the smug looking digimon who clearly knew he'd surprised his partner.

"That's… a good plan." Joe said slowly.

"You don't have to act so surprised, Joe." Gomamon's eyes wrinkled with his smirk as he jumped off the bed and into the sea. Gomamon pulled on their connected and Joe pushed right back, and when the digimon re-emerged he was Ikkakumon, the white mountain of fur. Joe jumped off the bed, grabbing onto the Ikkakumon and then sliding off the slick fur, landing back in the sea. Well, at least he was already wet.

Joe glared weakly up at Ikkakumon who gave a deep and rumbling laugh. Ikkakumon's paw came up from underneath Joe and lifted him up and out of the water, saving Joe the climb, and brought him around to his back. The fur of Ikkakumon's back was already getting dry, slicking water off no problem. Joe's clothes, unfortunately, did not have that ability and remained uncomfortably wet.

The sky was dotted with clouds - a particularly dark group surrounding Infinity Mountain - and they caught the beams of the sunrise. Joe let himself relax against Ikkakumon as the digimon leisurely swam to the shore of the nearest island. The adrenaline of sailing through the air to possible death was wearing off and yup, Joe was feeling the effects of no sleep. Without meaning to, he drifted off into the soft white fur, the sound of the ocean waves soothing him.

He was awoken by a beeping.

Joe almost fell into the water again, bolting up right and hand swatting around for his digivice before he was really aware of what he was doing. After there being no message for Infinity Mountain or Devimon's Mansion, he thought maybe Izzy had never recovered from whatever it was Mimi had done to get him away from his computer. But the screen was once again blinking at him, a small mail icon waiting for him to open.

 _Joe,_

 _Hey, it's me Sora. I snuck onto the computer while Izzy is chasing Mimi around. Tentomon's doing his best to hold him back, but not very well. I think it's kind of good for them. The tension has been pretty high for the past bit, and getting it out of their system in some way isn't bad._

 _If I did this right, it should pop up by the time that you get to the island with the Bakemon. Can you remember what that was like? Us two kid running around, you attempting to be the leader? I don't think we ever told you, but Gomamon set the whole thing up. He was worried about your confidence I guess._

 _Will that memory be gone? Will that be one of the things you change? I know Izzy keeps going on about how you should try to keep big events mostly the same and build up our allies mostly in the background, but I want you to be happy too. I don't mind if you change this, and I don't think you should just do everything we tell you too. We sent you back because we trust you Joe._

 _Good luck,_

 _Sora_

"Sora…" Joe whispered, looking at his digivice. He could remember her, remember this island. It had been months ago, not nearly long enough for him to forget. He had had the mantle of leader thrust upon him suddenly after he'd woken up, cold and sore after nearly drowning. Like the original events of Infinity Mountain, he'd felt the weight of being the eldest, being the one who should know what to do, of being the most responsible, and yet not quite having the abilities to do so.

But now he could see he was never meant to be the 'leader' of their rag-tag group. Tai's courage, his eagerness to go forward into danger, to never stop moving until they got where they needed to go, was perfect for that role. Joe was much more suited for the support in the background, for caring about food supply and first aid and that nobody was getting dehydrated.

They wouldn't have that same memory, because Joe was already more familiar with when to trust his own judgement and when to trust the judgement of his friends. He should've trusted Sora here. He wouldn't have to this time, since they'd leave before it became an issue. But it was a long ride back to Infinity Mountain, and Joe hadn't made much effort to talk with the others. He would this time, though, he promised that to himself, to the future Sora that had sent this message.

It took awhile to catch up with the island fragment as it constantly drifted further and farther away from them. When at last they did, Ikkakumon crawled up onto the shore and then immediately de-digivolved back into Gomamon.

"Alright, your turn." Gomamon panted, stomach growling.

"Wait, you're supposed to give us a ride off the island too!" Joe said as he stooped down and picked up his partner.

"We may have misjudged my strength just a bit." Gomamon grumbled into Joe's shirt.

"Well, there's got to be some food somewhere on this island, and if not we can try fishing or something." Joe sighed. "First thing's first, though: we have to find Sora and Biyomon - hopefully without getting caught by the Bakemon."

Gomamon suggests walking along the shore first. Last time they'd met up here, Sora had been fishing, which was probably what Joe would be doing if he was in her situation. That or looking for some fruit or something. They weren't like some of the others, whose digimon were constricted to the land, and all they needed was a full stomach to be on their way.

"Sora!" Joe shouted every so often. Gomamon eventually recovered enough to walk on his own again, but Joe could tell from the digimon's slow pace that he was still very hungry. He frowned. He would've thought they'd've found her by now.

"Maybe we swam to a different island fragment?" Gomamon suggested. Joe frowned. He wasn't about to rule that out, but it seemed unlikely, especially since her message had come through.

"Joe, Gomamon!"

Their names were said called out almost at a whisper, coming from a group of rocks near the shore.

"Sora?" Joe said, jogging closer to the rocks with Gomamon following behind him. Her familiar blue helmet popped up from the midst of the rocks, a finger pressed to her lips as she warned them to be quiet, but waved with the other hand for them to come closer to her. "Sora, are you okay?"

"You didn't run into anybody, did you?" Sora asked instead of answering, looking around them for any sign of anyone else.

"No, nobody. I landed in the ocean and then had Ikkakumon swim me to the closest island."

"Which wasn't that close." Gomamon added.

"Oh yeah, you wanted everybody to eat the food we already had." Sora recalled, face falling, "Oh, we should've… Biyomon would've been able to digivolve if-"

"Yeah, you guys should really listen to Joe sometimes! I know he's really annoying, and worries about things way way too much, and-" Joe slapped his hand over Gomamon's mouth before the digimon could go on.

"It's okay Sora, the food seemed okay, and you guys just wanted to believe that something was going right for once." Joe sympathized. He had been the one wanting that last time, to have something that was exactly what it seemed. But this was the digital world, and that didn't exist.

"Yes, but, but if we'd listened, if I'd been more careful, then Biyomon, B-Biyomon," Sora swallowed, shifting uncomfortably where she was sitting on the sands, eyes blinking furiously, and it was only then that Joe realized that the pink bird was nowhere to be seen. Not near Sora, comforting her, or off watching out for enemies from a bit of a distance.

"Sora, what happened?" Joe asked, a chill running up his spine. He looked her over, clutching the strap of his bag, looking her over for any injuries. She looked okay overall, but there was a small shake in her. Was it fear? Adrenaline? Sadness? He wasn't Sora, he had no way of knowing.

"We were looking for food." Sora said, softly, quietly. "I had Biyomon watching our fishing pole and I went farther in to look for something else, and I saw these people at this church." Joe had to stop himself from muttering 'Bakemon' angrily under his breath. "I didn't trust them though, there was something off about them, but I thought that maybe they had food. But then the people turned into this awful ghost digimon and chased after me. Biyomon arrived to hold them off, but…" Sora didn't finish. She didn't need to.

"Ah, Sora, don't cry!" Joe reached forward as Sora reached up and covered her eyes, shoulders shaking with her tears.

"I should've been more careful, and now the digimon are going to kill Biyomon!" She cried. Awkwardly, Joe set his hands on Sora's shoulders and she leaned into him. Even more awkwardly, Joe hugged her.

"It'll be okay, Sora. Biyomon's tough, and B- uh, I bet the digimon you met won't hurt her." Gomamon reassured Sora, flopping forward.

"You didn't do anything wrong." Joe agreed. Gomamon nodded at Joe to go on. "And, and Biyomon is fine, I'm sure! You'd know if something was wrong."

"I'd… know?" Sora pulled away, drying her eyes. She reached down to her pocket that she kept her digivice in, but Joe shook his head.

"No, not from your digivice. Can't you feel Biyomon?" Sora's blank look was answer enough. Joe swallowed. He could feel Gomamon without even trying. He still couldn't remember when he'd picked that up. "You just, you know, just, feel her out."

"It's kind of like meditating or something." Gomamon supplied.

"Meditation." Sora repeated. She closed her eyes, breathing slowly. Joe exchanged a look with Gomamon, mouthing 'how did you know that?' to which Gomamon just shrugged.

"Do you feel anything?" Joe asked.

"No, just… wait, there's something… there's something warm. It's… soft, and it's… it needs something, it needs…" Sora's voice trailed off.

Joe jumped to his feet as a sharp bird-like screech rang through the air. Gomamon, unable to digivolve but still willing to fight with what energy he had left, hopped in front of Joe. Sora stood slowly, calm and smiling.

"Don't worry, it's Birdramon."

The huge orange bird was easy to see over the treeline as she flew towards them, free of the Bakemon. Sora grinned up at her partner. Birdramon descended on them, flapping wings kicking up the sand, and Joe had to shield his eyes to keep grit from getting into them.

"Sora!" Birdramon cried, ducking her head low enough for Sora to run forward and hug the digimon's beak. "You're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay, what's important is that you're okay!" Sora pet Birdramon's beak, touching her forward to it. Much more at ease now that Birdramon was near her. Joe smiled himself. He knew it was rough being without your digimon. "How did you get away, how did you _digivolve?"_

"The Bakemon were keeping me in jail. I think they were hoping you'd come and save me. I tricked one of the guards into giving me his bananas, but then I couldn't digivolve. But then I felt a sudden surge of energy, and I could!" Birdramon crowed triumphantly. Sora laughed and hugged her digimon harder.

"This is nice and all, but we should really start heading back to Infinity Mountain." Joe reminded them.

"C'mon Joe, let them have their moment." Gomamon chided.

"No, Joe's right. The others need us." Sora turned around, eyes hardening with resolve as she let go of her partner's beak. "Alright, let's get going." She walked over to one of Birdramon's talons, and Joe followed after her.

"Uh, we might need a bit of a lift."


	10. Chapter 10

How they found themselves at Primary Village, Joe wasn't sure. He just knew it was the direction they needed to head in, and clearly Sora did as well. In fact, it seemed like everybody had felt the same unexplainable pull towards that part of the island, to the youngest of their group.

Ogremon was easily driven away from TK, outmatched in both terms of power and number.

"TK!" Matt jumped off of Garurumon and ran to his little brother, enveloping him in a big and tight hug.

"Matt!" TK said, burying his head into Matt's stomach as he wrapped his arms around his brother, holding him tightly and sounding close to tears. "I was so- when Ogremon-"

"Hey, it's okay, I'm here now. I'm here, TK." Matt reassured his brother, bending down so that he could hold on to his little brother. Joe gave a sigh of relief. It always felt wrong, one without the other. The closeness of the brother's was always clear, but even more so once Joe had learned about the brother's bond and their desire to spend as much time with each other as possible - even if in constant danger - because when they got back to the human world, they'd be separated once more.

"Good, you all made it back."

Joe turned in the direction of the voice, smiling as he saw Leomon approaching from the trees. Most of the others, however, didn't react as nicely.

"Garurumon!" Matt shouted and the digimon howled, jumping to stand between him and the lion-like digimon while Matt pushed TK behind him.

"We can take him!" Sora agreed and Birdramon crowed, starting to put some distance between herself and Leomon in what Joe recognized as her preparing to attack with meteor strike. Joe's smile dropped at the sudden reminder that Leomon was not, in fact, on their side yet.

Mimi and Izzy, however, were quick to jump to the digimon's defense.

"Wait, don't attack him!" Mimi cried, running to stand as a barrier between Garurumon and Leomon. Togemon mimicked the move behind her.

"It's okay, Leomon's good!" Izzy promised and Kabuterimon flew so that Birdramon would risk hitting him if she tried to attack Leomon.

"It's alright, I don't blame them for being wary. I have a feeling it will serve you all well for the duration of your time here." Leomon said. He hadn't pulled out his knife yet, arms at his side and hands even turned slightly towards the group of digidestined to emphasize his lack of weapons. Although, he was a digimon, so not having a physical weapon didn't really mean much about how dangerous he was.

"Leomon isn't under Devimon's control anymore." Mimi promised. "He even saved Izzy and me when we were being attacked by Centarumon."

"Let me guess, Centarumon was a nice digimon and then he got a dark gear inside of him." Tai said and crossed his arms. He hadn't jumped to attack Leomon, but he had looked wary enough at Leomon's appearance.

"Indeed. Lucky for me, Togemon and Kabuterimon were able to get it out of me and destroy it." Centarumon emerged from the woods as well, and just behind him came Unimon.

Yeah… Joe definitely didn't remember either of them being here last time around.

"Perhaps it is time we offered you some explanation." Leomon offered. Sora and Matt still looked like they weren't entirely believing Leomon was a good guy, but they must have believed it enough as Garurumon and Birdramon both came back down to their respective digidestined, de-digivolving back to rookie. In fact, all their digimon returned to their rookie forms with the only exceptions being Patamon and Gomamon, both of which hadn't been digivolved in the first place.

"I'd be willing to hear them out." Tai said, and already the boy's position of leader seemed agreed upon somehow, as everybody else nodded along.

As they all got settled down, Elekmon came by and offered them some fish he caught. He had enough for the baby digimon, and upon seeing Leomon, Centarumon, and Unimon was more than happy to give them a big of a hand. Gomamon was the first one to dive into the food absolutely starving, and Joe chuckled a bit. All of them sat in a circle, the fish in the middle, with the digidestined on one side and the other three across from them.

"So, what kind of explanation do you have for us?" Matt asked.

"It goes back thousands of years. Most digimon do not remember. Even I, a keeper of records, only have legends passed down from others that I can share and cryptic messages written in my labyrinth I've spent my entire life deciphering." Centarumon took the lead, clearing his throat before he spoke. "They say that there were once heroes from another world who came here and, working side by side with digimon, banished dark digimon. There was an era of prosperity and light that followed this, but what happened to these heroes is unknown. They left, and darkness was able to take hold."

"Devimon came to File Island, and here he was able to gain power that far exceeds what he should be capable of." Leomon informed them. "It wasn't always as bad as it currently is. The Dark Gears is a new plague that has been causing chaos. But he's noticed your seven, and he believes you are the heroes, returned once more and this time to stop him."

"But why can't he just be nice, like everybody else? Does he have a black gear inside of him?" TK asked, honestly confusion.

"If only it were so easy." Unimon sighed.

"Devimon has a darkness inside of him that goes beyond gears. It's in his very data." Leomon sighed.

"So he and Ogremon are just going to keep trying to kill us for as long as we're here?" Sora asked, brow furrowed, and Centarumon nodded solemnly.

"I'm afraid so. And I'm afraid that brings us to the crux of the issue; I believe that were indeed called here to banish Devimon's evil from this island." Centarumon informed them.

"But we're not those heroes or whatever! This is my first time being here." Mimi said and the others chimed in their agreement. Joe kept silent about it, not wanting to lie and not sure whether according to time travel it was a lie or not to say he'd never come here before.

"Perhaps you are not the same heroes, but the digital world called you here for a reason. Those digivices in your hands are proof." Leomon said. Joe looked down at his own digivice, a familiar weight and a comfort. It was easy to forget that the simple device was what had started all of this, was what had brought them all here.

"So that's what it's going to take? If we defeat Devimon, we'll be able to go home?" Matt asked. The three digimon look at eachother.

"There is no way for us to be sure, but we believe it to be possible." Leomon informed them.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Tai stood up, hand clenched into a fist. "We've been able to defeat every enemy we've encountered yet, Devimon'll be no problem!"

"If that's what it takes, I'm ready to go home! I need a hot shower, and a real one! Not a fake one from a weird sketchy mansion." Mimi stood up too, siding with Tai. Everybody else started to stand up too, all recalling things they missed from home, how prepared they were to fight again.

"Devimon won't stand a chance against all of us!" Gomamon agreed.

"Yeah, let's do this!" Joe pumped a fist into the air, emboldened by the others.

It was only once they actually got started the trip to Infinity Mountain, where the dark clouds were densest, that Joe started to have second thoughts.

"Ikkakumon, we're not going to go home after this." Joe asked his digimon. Ikkakumon hummed, swimming easily through the water now that he had a belly full of fish.

"Maybe we changed more stuff that you think we did." Ikkakumon replied with his usual casual and upbeat attitude. Joe huffed and did his best not to roll his eyes.

"Don't act so excited to get rid of me." Joe teased and Ikkakumon shook himself, and thus shook Joe, slighly. "But really, I don't think the digital world would let us leave without dealing with what's going on at Server."

"Ugh, I can't believe we have to go through that again. Do we need to work at Digitamamon's again?" Gomamon asked and Joe hung his head.

"Don't ask me that yet, how am I supposed to know?" He grumbled. "Should I warn them, though? That they need to plan for another couple months of this?"

"No." Ikkakumon said. He was looking forward at the rest of the group. "I think… they should have this moment."

Joe silently agreed.

There would be good times to come, and there would be hard times, but there wouldn't be this kind of hope of going home for a long long time. Dreaming of going home, of returning… Joe knew it would be hard for the others when they found out it wouldn't be that easy, but he also envied their ability to so easily think about, to not know the challenges they had to get through before they made it there.

The black gears soared through the air and converged at Infinity Mountain, and then from the top rose Devimon, far bigger and more powerful than a champion level had any right to be. Ikkakumon swam faster, as did Birdramon and Kabuterimon who were carrying the other kids. When they hit land, no time was wasted as they ran towards Devimon, war cries being shouted by all and words of encouragement for their digimon.

Joe held his breath, not sure exactly what he was doing but just knowing he was sending everything he could, all the energy he had, to Ikkakumon. It felt like pounding his head on a wall, though, hitting something that he couldn't get past. They weren't Devimon, they could only get so strong.

It didn't mean it hurt any less when Ikkakumon was batted around like he was just a giant stuffed animal.

They weren't strong enough.

Joe and Ikkakumon weren't strong enough.

"TK, Patamon, get out of here!" Joe shouted, far too late to be of any use. Devimon's hand had already closed around the small digimon, and the light of digivolution poured out.

The energy that Joe had been pouring into Ikkakumon - who once again became Gomamon - was rerouted towards Angemon, who floated in all his heavenly glory, and then everything became bright, and light, and too bright.

"ANGEMON!" TK shouted desperately to his partner.

Why was it so bright? So loud and yet so quiet? Joe squeezed his eyes shut and-

" _TK!" Matt shouted, loud and raw._

" _No, Matt, you can't go over there!" Joe held onto Matt, holding him back, keeping him from running towards his brother._

" _My little brother's in there! TK, I'm coming!"_

 _Joe wasn't strong by any stretch of the term, but he had Gomamon and Gabumon helping him keep Matt where he was._

" _He's not, Matt! We have to go!" Joe begged. Matt struggling was getting more desperate, but there was less strength behind it, like some part of him was slowly understanding the futility of it, that even if he got free from the well-meaning arms keeping him where he was, there was nothing he could do._

" _Matt, Joe, this way!" Sora called over to them. Joe turned to look at Sora, who had a hand on Tai's wrist. Tai's eyes were glassy, tears slowly streaming down them, such a sharp difference from Matt's hands clawing at Joe's arms._

" _C'mon Matt, we need to get out of here." Joe would drag Matt if he had to._

 _This would not be the end._


End file.
